Solomon Sauls has been handed a sentence of 244 years for abalone poaching and bribery by the High Court of South Africa on Monday, February 15.
Sauls admitted to poaching and bribing officials in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The 48-year-old is currently serving a seven-year sentence for delivery and logistics of illegally sourced abalone that were exported. Prior to this sentence, he was already serving 14 years imprisonment for his involvement in another syndicate that operated from 2001 until the arrest of its members in 2008.
The National Prosecuting Authority explained that Sauls recent conviction is on 16 counts of corruption, participating in an enterprise, two counts of money laundering, 12 counts of Contravention of S44(2) of the Marine Living Resources Act and 10 counts of contravention Marine Living Resources Act of Reg 36(1) (b).
This is a total of 42 charges, resulting in the 244-year sentence. However, as the sentences will run concurrently, this equates to an effective sentence of 18 years imprisonment.
Sauls was able to run these businesses as he was working with nine officials from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who have since been arrested.
‘He bribed them and bought back abalone that was confiscated from his team of poachers. He would also stop the officials from confiscating the abalone telling them that the divers were his. Arrangements would be made for the return of the illegally harvested abalone and he would pay the officials tens of thousands of rands. The officials would then divide the money among themselves,’ explained the NPA’s spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila.
Abalone are critically endangered and are on the SASSI Red List. Their long maturity time and increased black market value provides a deadly combination of incessant poaching and a lack of population replenishment.
Picture: Pixabay
